Possessed Girl
by Irken Invader
Summary: Watanuki spies an unusual group of people passing by Yuko's shop. xxxHolic crossover with Hell Girl. put in horror genre for no other reason than that xxxHolic is about ghosts and Hell Girl is about Hell. not scary at all
1. Chapter 1

sooooooooooooooo...Hell Girl! and xxxHolic! They were made for each other! If i owned either, they WOULD be the same story...but i dont. but i decided to make them the same story anyway. there will be one more chapter and that will be the end. this wasn't made to be very long. i apologize for the format. i kinda such at it. dont no how to fix it. i was experimenting but i've kinda given up by now.

'thoughts' "speaking out loud" kinda obvious but just making it more obvious

Watanuki stopped sweeping and shuddered. 'There must be a spirit nearby.' He thought to himself, leaning on the broom. 'And a particularly powerful and malevolent one too, if that horrible aura it's giving off is any indication.' He wondered briefly if Yuko, or even that idiot Doumeki, were around it scare it off for him, before hating himself for even allowing the thought to enter his head. "I'm probably safe anyway as long as I stay on Yuko's property. I remember from my first day here that the gate is spelled against spirits." He resumed sweeping, but after about 30 seconds morbid curiosity got the better of him and he went to peer out the window. (note: I'm not sure if Yuko's house has a front window, but for the purposes of this fic, it does)

Nothing of the usual sort of blob monster was floating outside the gate, and in fact there was nothing there at all. Watanuki was puzzled. If anything, that horrifying presence seemed stronger than before, so why couldn't he…ah. Something was coming down the sidewalk now. 'No, wait. It's just a school girl.' He shuddered. Her long black hair reminded him annoyingly of Yuko's. 'That's strange. That uniform doesn't belong to any of the schools around here. But, that really doesn't scream supernatural.' Watanuki blinked, then jumped back and screamed an undeniably girly scream. 3 people now walked just slightly behind the girl, partly surrounding her. Three people who had _not _been there before. The girl hadn't reacted at all to their sudden appearance. He wondered if she had even noticed. 'Maybe they're ghosts. Maybe they're possessing her, and they're combined aura is what I'm sensing.'

One was young man, probably around 20 years old. His black hair fell casually over one eye, and he walked at the girl's left hand side with his hands in the pockets of his green and white zip-up. A strange pendant hung around his neck. At her right hand side was an old man, looking to be in his 80s. He wore a black banded brown felt hat on his head, a brown traditional style Japanese coat (note: don't know what it's actually called) and had a red scarf thrown around his neck. The last was a beautiful middle aged woman, who walked immediately at the girl's back. The sash of her blue kimono, Watanuki was embarrassed to notice, was tied at the front. (note: that's how prostitutes wear theirs)

'If those three are really possessing her, then I wish there was something I could do to help her. The spirits don't look evil, but then I have to admit, some of the scarier things I've meet in Yuko's employ looked safe and human too.' All of this had taken place in only a few seconds time, so the girl was only just approaching the section of the fence that opened to the path leading down to the shop. As she reached it the girl stopped abruptly in her tracks, but still stood facing directly ahead of her. Her companions stopped with her. "Why did she stop?" He whispered aloud. 'I remember being told that only those with a wish can see the store. Doumeki even said it just looked like an empty lot to him. That shouldn't give her any reason to stop at this particular place, and she hasn't even looked over here yet."

The ghost theory was busted wide open when the woman, looking curious, walked over to the front of the girl and crouched down so that their faces were level. "What is it, Mistress? Why have we stopped?" "A shop." It didn't occur to Watanuki that he shouldn't be able to hear what the woman was saying at this distance and through the glass of the window. Still staring expressionlessly at the sidewalk running ahead of her, the girl stretched out the hand at her side and pointed straight at the store, and to his horror, the window out of which Watanuki was spying on them. He hurriedly ducked out of view, and ran to the door.

He heard her say to the girl, "Do you want to go inside?" Sliding the door open a crack, Watanuki stepped halfway outside, cautious and embarrassed because he knew the whole group could see him there. "Um, are…are you a customer? Are you here to see Yuko?" The girl ignored them both and finally turned to face the doorway. He could only stifle a gasp as he noticed the color of her empty eyes. Blood-red.

She slowly reached out a hand, as if to grasp the air on the other side of the opening. To Watanuki's immense horror, an immense spider web, as solid and transparent as glass, formed in and around the doorway before his very eyes. Her hand met and pressed up the barrier without making a sound. There was no hint of anger or surprise in the mysterious girl's face. She leaned forward and breathed on the glassy barricade, leaving a foggy patch starkly visible against its translucent surrounding. It faded quickly. She looked up, first at Watanuki and then her companion, and shook her head, answering both of their previous questions with the same gesture. Then she turned and continued walking in the direction she had originally headed. The old man and the woman followed after her, but the younger man gave Watanuki a sympathetic smile and a wave before jogging off to keep up.

'How strange…who were they?' Watanuki thought to himself. He slowly closed the door and walked back to where he'd placed the broom against the wall.


	2. Chapter 2

don't own either xxxHolic or Hell Girl. would kill for them, or at least seriously injure for them, but for now, i don't. p.s there's some spoilers, so if you haven't watched the 2nd season of Hell Girl? yeah, well, there's some spoilers.

"This girl was so strange! Those red eyes and that blank stare…she looked younger than me and she had these three following her around as if she were leading them on a string! And another thing! You said only customers could see the shop, but she could and she said she wasn't a customer! And when she left, she just kept right on walking. She wasn't even dragged into the shop like I was, or come to think of it, just about all your customers!" Yuko lounged on her chaise languidly, but her expression was serious. "Did she try to enter the shop?" "No, I told you, she just…wait, she did do this thing, like try to pass her hand through the doorway, but this glass spider web thing appeared and blocked the way. Now that I think about it…it seems almost as if she suspected it would happen, that she was testing the gate." Watanuki turned his suspicions on the witch in the room. "Don't tell me you did it? Why did you block the way?" Yuko sighed. "I assure you, Watanuki, I wasn't the one who created the barrier." She turned her face up to the ceiling and blew out a stream of smoke, tapping ash out of her pipe. "That tricky spider doesn't like to take any chances with his precious puppet. She won't dance with her strings clipped." Yuko murmured almost to herself. Or at least, that what it sounded like to Watanuki, but it wasn't positive, since the answer didn't seem to make much sense. Speaking to Watanuki once again, Yuko let a faint smile grace her lips. "All the same, I am rather glad she didn't try to force her way through. That girl is altogether more trouble than she's worth. Her name is Enma Ai. She is not someone you want to get involved with Watanuki. She runs an operation…similar to my own." Watanuki looked curious. "I didn't realize that there were any other shops like yours." "It's not a shop."

Watanuki waited for several minutes, but Yuko didn't seem ready to divulge any more information. Raising a perfect eyebrow at his scowl, she said "You do realize that if I tell you anymore, it will have to come out of your paycheck? Very well, if you wish. We two run very similar businesses, but there a few key differences between our work. For example, I run my business out of this store. My customers, whether or not they consciously realize that they need my services, wherever they may be, they come to me. Ai's customers always know exactly what they want when they employ her, and when they call upon her, wherever they may be, she comes to them. But those are small differences. What truly divides what I do, and what I do, is this. While I take a soul as my payment metaphorically…" Yuko pulled out the ninja Kurogane's sword from behind her and pointed it at Watanuki. 'Seriously, when did she bring that out of storage? And how long has she been hiding it behind her back?' Yuko twirled the sword around the general area of Watanuki's heart, and then placed the tip gently against the fabric of his shirt. "Adorable little Ai takes your soul quite literally. To hell, in fact." With each word, the sword pressed a fraction harder against Watanuki's chest until it pierced first the heavy fabric of his school uniform and then drew a drop of blood from his skin. The sword finally pulled away, and was handed to Maru and Moro to be stored away until it was needed once more. "But, not until you die, of course. In return, Ai will ferry the body and soul of whoever you so choose down to those very depths immediately upon fulfillment of the contract. You only get one though, so choose carefully."

Watanuki stared at Yuko in shock and horror. He was shaking so much that he had to sit down. "You're not joking, are you." "No, I'm not. And just for the record, despite her appearance Ai is actually much, much older than you. She has been offering this service of hers for considerably longer than I have been providing my own, as well. I believe she hit the 400 year mark not too long ago? But enough idle chit-chat. It seems we have a customer. Maru? Moro?" Lacking their usual giggles and mischievousness, the shop's two "batteries" as it were, entered the room as solemn as Yuko, leading a smiling young man in a green and white zip-up. "Speak of the devil…" Yuko murmured aloud. The man just continued to smile, and shook his head amused. "Now I know you don't think that. Just a humble servant of a humble servant." It was, Watanuki noticed, the same man from that morning. He thought he might puke. Seeing the obvious disgust on the student worker's face, the man only said "I see your employer has been gossiping about my own." Yuko smiled. "Have a seat. She does not know you're here?" There was no question as to who "she" referred to. "I can only assume she suspects, but then it is hard to tell with Ai." Yuko pursed her lips and then opened them to ask an additional question of the man, but he raised his hand to stop her. "The other…you need not worry about him either. He knows, but he does not care. He never deigns to speak to us, or acknowledge our existence. He still considers us just a passing fancy that she will outgrow. In his eyes, I am no threat." He smiled broader. "In his eyes, neither are you."

Then the smile faltered a bit. He fidgeted. "Could you please ask them to leave? The soul-less make me uncomfortable." Yuko nodded her head, and the two girl-shaped beings left the room. Watanuki wondered as to how the man had known. The man who was Ai's servant visibly relaxed as soon as Maru and Moro had left. "I trust your interrogation is now over? May we get down to business? I am told you grant wishes." A slight nod from Yuko. "I have a wish I desperately need granted, and am willing to pay any price. I need to buy freedom." Watanuki leaned forward. 'Can it be possible? This…well, he must be a supernatural creature after all…can it be that this spirit actually is forced into this horrific work? He doesn't want to do it! He wants freedom! He is good after all!' Out loud he said "Yuko, you have to help him! You have the power to break whatever contract this man is under with that demon-girl Ai, don't you?" Yuko looked angry, to his surprise. "Don't interfere, Watanuki!" She snapped at him.

The man turned to Watanuki, surprised. "Whatever made you assume I wished to buy freedom _from_ Ai? Maybe you misunderstood. My wish is to buy freedom _for_ Ai. Who else would take in a tsukumogami? Without her, I would not be here. I would still be just a sword, abandoned on a rock, slowly drowning in the weight of the sins I committed in the hands of my many brutal masters. Ai gave me a body, a name, a home, and a family. I may still be ending life, but at least with Ai I have a choice, and I choose to do this so that Ai doesn't have to do it alone...But I want to do more for her. She suffers still, after all this time." Yuko gazed on as the calm mask slipped further and further away to reveal an increasingly defensive and upset tsukumogami. Finally she asked "Why does your employer not come in to wish for her own freedom? The barrier would not have been able to stop her if she had not let it." The man, 'no, sword', Watanuki reminded himself, blinked and then slid back into that perpetually irritating smile. "You know very well that she can't. Ai _can't_ have feelings, emotions, or _wants_. It's against the rules." "The Lord of Hell holds his hostages tight. The price of your wish will be higher than you could possibly imagine, and the consequences will ripple out to affect more than the wisher and the recipient of the wish." "But if it's for Ai…"

"Ren. I knew I'd find you here." Maru and Moro slid the door open, and the old man from earlier that day, apparently also a servant of the girl Ai, walked in. He bowed in Yuko's direction and then turned to the sword in the shape of a man. He opened his mouth to speak, paused, shooed Maru and Moro back out into the hall after they had followed him in, and then turned back to… 'Ren. The old man called him Ren.' "Ah. Wanyudo. How good to see you again." Yuko drawled. She was completely ignored as the old man stared down his younger associate. Finally he sighed. "I know what you're trying to do, Ren, and I'm begging you not to. Don't give me that look! Do you honestly think I don't feel the same way as you? We all do! I've been with the Mistress the longest of any of us and you think I care less than you? When this shop first opened, I was there and I watched. I saw what the witch could do. And when I was assured of her power, I went to her, asking the same thing that you do now. But when I understood the consequences of what I was asking…If you go through with this, Ai will die."

Ren looked shocked, and uncomprehending. Wanyudo continued on, grim faced. "Ai is not like us, her servants. Swords and carriage wheels can never truly die, as we have never been alive in a true sense. Honne Oma was already dead when she joined us. But Ai, Ai was _alive _when she became the Lord Spider's slave. And she has spent the last four centuries performing this duty for him to atone for her sins in the living world. Free her now, give her back her humanity, and she would crumble to become nothing but dust. Only by her usefulness to the spider is she still alive." Ren was silent for a long time. Finally he nodded, and stood up. They both turned to see the door open a third time to admit the final servant, the beautiful 'and dead' woman. 'This must be Honne Oma.' Watanuki thought to himself. It really seemed that he had been forgotten as this drama unfolded before him.

"Really Ren, Wanyudo. I can't count the number of times I wanted to come here, and when I finally work up the courage, you two beat me to the chase." Seeing the somber looks on both of their faces, her smile collapsed. She understood in an instant. "It…won't work, will it?" She began to cry a little. "Well, it doesn't really matter does it? Ai is our world. We'll find another way. After all, we haven't just devoted our lives to her. We have given her our eternity." Wanyudo laughed, a sad laugh, yet filled with happiness behind the tears. Ren turned to Yuko and bowed deeply. "I'm sorry to have taken up your time." Yuko bowed back. "I'm sorry my shop was unsuited to fulfill your wish." They turned to leave, and stopped dead still. Ai stood in the doorway.

Her face betrayed nothing of what she may have heard. Watanuki was shocked, but even more unnerved by the fact that Yuko had not noticed the girl enter the shop either. "Ai? How long have you been standing there?" Honne Oma asked hesitantly. "And, how did you find us? How did you get in?" Ai stared blankly, and finally opened her fist to reveal broken shards of glass. Remains of the shattered barrier. "We have a request. Wanyudo." "Yes, Mistress." The old man replied obediently. As he swung the trailing end of his scarf around his neck, he shrunk to become a small black straw doll with a red string tied around its neck. The girl bent to pick up the doll and placed it into her pocket. "Ren. Honne Oma." Her two remaining servants dropped to the floor as well, one as a blue doll, the other red. They were both picked up and also placed in her pockets. Then she stood silent. She remained where she stood, watching Yuko. Time slowed to a crawl. "Do you not have a customer to attend to?" Yuko asked coldly. Finally the girl announced, in an as emotionless voice as before, "I do not appreciate those who cause distress to my servants. One day, Ichihara. One day soon." She turned and opened the door. Watanuki gasped to see not the familiar hallways of Yuko's house, but instead a house on a lake, surrounded by never ending fields of red lycoris flowers. The brilliant red light of the setting sun flooded into the room through the open door. "How did you…? Even then, it was already dark out when you arrived! How can it be sunset?" The girl gave him one last empty stare. "It is always sunset here." And stepped through and closed the door. When he dashed to open it again, the only sight that greeted him Maru and Moro, still waiting in the hallway to be let back in.

Fin

wow, i really dont like the way it ended. maybe i should rewrite it later. ehhhhhhh...watev.


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